Bordentown scatters historical markers across city

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BORDENTOWN CITY — In most museums, patrons are not allowed to touch the exhibits. But in Bordentown City, they can live them.

The municipality unveiled a set of 15 new historical banners yesterday, denoting people or places of importance throughout the years, from those who helped win the Revolutionary War to those whose contributions to society are still in our lives today.

“Bordentown is so rich in history, it’s hard to capture it all in one walk-through,” said Mimi Mount, a Bordentown resident who helped guide the historical walking tour following the banners. “You might learn something about Bordentown that just might surprise you.”

One of the town’s lesser-known claims to fame is that it was home to the nation’s first female spy, Patience Wright. A renowned sculptor in the area — and supporter of the colonies during the Revolutionary War — she became a favorite artist in the court of King George III, where she was called upon to sculpt the likeness of many lords and ladies in wax.

While working in London, Wright was privy to many war-related plans being made by the kingdom, and she relayed those in letters hidden in wax figures she would ship home to her sister, who would, in turn, give them to members of the Revolutionary Army.

The house she lived in while residing in Bordentown is now marked with a banner, just down the street from the home of her fellow Revolutionary, Francis Hopkinson. A New Jersey representative in the Continental Congress and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, Hopkinson’s biggest influence can be seen in countless sites across the globe today — he was responsible for the original “stars and stripes” design for the American flag.

Additional tour stops point out other Bordentown City residents with a worldwide influence, like William Allen, who invented the concept of time zones to help trains remain on schedule as they traveled from one side of the country to the other.

“If anyone here knows what time it is in California, that’s because of William Allen,” said Michael Skelly, director of Bordentown Heritage. “If you’ve ever gotten off a plane in another country and known what time it is there, you can thank a person who lived in Bordentown.”

The original train that served as Allen’s inspiration has its own banner along the route, which goes down Farnsworth Avenue. Traveling under the oldest railroad bridge in the country, the train has been running since 1830 — the oldest in continuous use in the nation, Skelly said.

And while the tour offers insights to a bevy of historical facts, Skelly said several more banners are in the works to point out even more of the town — and the country’s — history. Still, he was quick to point out the uniqueness the markers represented.

“This is not a museum,” he said. “This is history, weaved into our everyday lives.”